


the moon, like to a silver bow

by cherry_picking



Category: SK8 the Infinity (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Coming Out, Fae!Langa, Fluff, Getting Together, Grief/Mourning, Idiots in Love, Kitsune, Kitsune!Reki, Kyan Reki is a Ray of Sunshine, Light Petting, M/M, POV Kyan Reki, Reki's internal monologue, Slice of Life, Supernatural Elements, Teen Romance, Your Gender Identity And Presentation As A Shapeshifter: Discuss, and I don't just mean Reki's tail, sort of canon compliant, sort of urban fantasy, there's really 0 worldbuilding, they still skate, this is just an excuse for more shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 17:55:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29737659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherry_picking/pseuds/cherry_picking
Summary: Reki asks the first thing that comes to his mind. “Is it true that Fae can’t lie?”He sees Langa’s face go through more emotions in a few seconds than he’s seen in months. “They can avoid questions,” Langa settles on, but his teeth are grinding and there’s a bead of sweat on his forehead, where his hair falls in more disarray than Reki's ever seen it.The self-indulgent fic in which they talk. A lot. Because good communication and deep and meaningful conversations are my kink.
Relationships: Hasegawa Langa/Kyan Reki
Comments: 8
Kudos: 92





	the moon, like to a silver bow

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hongse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hongse/gifts).



> "Common forms assumed by kitsune include beautiful women, young girls, elderly men, and less often young boys. **These shapes are not limited by the fox's own age or gender.** " - Wikipedia on Kitsune
> 
> Also, foxes do really purr. Thought it was important to note.
> 
> Title from Midsummer Night's Dream, because _obviously_. I'm not going to write about Fae without invoking dear old Will.
> 
> This was supposed to have a plot, but then I thought to myself: why? and decided to do without  
> And it still took me weeks to write. So long, in fact, that apparently Kitsune!Kaoru is... canon now? Okay, not canon, but there were some extras in the comic, according to the frankly impressive amount of Kitsune Kaoru fanart I've been seeing on twitter these past few days. His fluffy pink tails spark joy, but this fic was written before that and in this verse Kaoru is fully human (there might be side story with him and Kojiro, if I feel like it, but no promises).
> 
> My favourite Kitsune fact, as provided by The Flatmate With An Actual Degree In Japanese Language and Literature is that they can't repeat the same word twice in a row, and that's why in Japan you answer the phone with "moshi moshi". So I imagined that Langa, having grown up abroad, doesn't really think about it, and has many a phone conversations with Reki without realising. Then it spiralled from there.
> 
> Recommended soundtrack: [Babymetal - Megitsune](https://youtu.be/cK3NMZAUKGw), [Harry Styles - Girl crush](https://youtu.be/UdLRqtS_TMk)

“What do you want most in the world?” Langa asks him one evening, just as the twilight turns his hair and eyes eerie purple and shadows shimmer all around them, the familiar skate park suddenly a new magical place.

Reki doesn’t mind, Reki never minds it when Langa asks him those weird, deep questions. He doesn’t have many other friends, Reki thinks, he is trying to catch up because they haven’t known each other for that long, or maybe it’s cultural differences. It might not even be the growing up abroad: once Reki had a friend from another school and his sense of humour was all weird and different too. Who knows what Langa’s old school was like.

A sudden gust of wind brings a smell of heather and wet earth and pushes insistently against Reki’s cheeks, like a tangible presence. When he turns, Langa is staring at him, intent and direct like there is nothing else in the world to look at.

This, the unblinking attention, Reki minds a little bit. If nothing else because one day Langa will pick up on how his breath stutters and his cheeks pinken when he’s this close, and then it will be far too easy to draw the correct conclusions.

This question, tonight, is easy. “To be happy.”

Reki misses the flash of surprise on Langa’s face. No, not surprise, something deeper, like Reki had said something in a tongue foreign to them both. Like Reki is something entirely new.

“Is that all?”

Reki smiles and pokes his side. “I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic.”

A strange twist of Langa’s lips resolves into a brief smile. “I am not.”

“Well, it’s not a little thing. I know what makes me happy now, and I know I have no interest in chasing…” he gestures one palm open wide to the evening sky, while with the other arm he props himself up. There is a perfectly serviceable bench, but they are once again sitting on the ground in the middle of the empty lot.

“Chasing status and all the things you’re supposed to want, you know? I mean, sure, I want a good job some day so I can help mom more, but it’s not… I don’t want anything special.”

“I disagree,” Langa comments, cryptic.

Reki huffs. “So what is it you want?” He bumps his shoulder into Langa’s.

The silence stretches until it’s almost too much, until a pink cloud has turned all the way red and Reki is starting to feel pinpricks where his palm rests against the rough concrete. Still he doesn’t move, because sometimes Langa needs time, and sometimes Langa spooks like a wild thing if you make the wrong move. It’s funny really, how Reki thought the other boy afraid of nothing, back when they first met.

Langa breathes in, then out. “Stuff,” he says, and it’s so anticlimactic Reki wants to punch him.

“Stuff? Come on, man, seriously?”

Langa tilts his head. “I would like for my handwriting to magically improve without using your little sisters’ exercise books.”

“Tough luck. You should have moved to Europe, if you wanted an easy life.”

In a rare show of initiative, Langa leans his head on Reki’s shoulder. “I’m pretty happy to be here. Also,” he adds, “Europe is not a country. I’m quite sure learning German from scratch would be even worse than having to practice my kanji.”

*

When Reki gets home, his mother is in a tizzy, which puts him on high alert. She is usually very calm, the image of patience even with Reki’s hyperactive youngest sisters (Reki himself never tests her patience, of course, he’s a model child and has never done anything wrong, ever).

“What is it?”

“There are some new outsiders around.”

The way she says _outsiders_ makes it very clear what kind of people she is talking about. Or, well, not people, technically. A bit like them. Reki has never liked focusing too much of that. He loves his mom and his sisters, and he likes himself most of the time, but he doesn’t always like not being human. He doesn’t like the subtle yet unshakeable membrane separating him from everyone else.

“Did they do anything?”

“No, no, dear, nothing worrying like that,” his mother reassures him, “Apparently they just didn’t know about that nest of Tengu in the big park near your old school and spooked them, but they didn’t mean any harm.”

Reki scoffs at that, “Oh, come on,” he says, kicking off his shoes and dropping his school bag near the door, “You can’t trust what they say. They always get scared. Maybe they saw a cosplayer and thought they were a wizard.”

Her lips thin, and she looks ready to argue the credibility of Tengu, which is an argument Reki doesn’t want to re-hash, so he blurts out, “What are they?”

So maybe that wasn’t the best line to avoid an argument. His mother gives him a hard stare. It’s rude to ask so directly, but now that he thinks about it, Reki _is_ curious. And besides, there is no one around to hear. He gives her his best cute cub expression, all wide eyed and innocent, and she relents almost immediately.

“Fae.”

Reki can’t help it, he whistles, impressed. He only has some vague notion of what Fae can be like, but they are exotic and mysterious and rarely wander to this side of the world.

“ _Reki,_ ” his mother warns.

“Sorry, mom. It’s just… it’s pretty cool, right? Have you met them yet?”

She shakes her head, smiling indulgently at his unabashed curiosity. “No, and they might want to keep their privacy.”

Reki huffs, and she ruffles his hair, taking off the blue bandana. When distracted or excited, Reki is prone to forget to hide his fox ears, so he’s gotten into the habit of always wearing a bandana outside. Besides, the style suits him and it keeps the hair out of his eyes, so it’s a win-win situation. Or, well, a win-and-also-win situation, if he is ever going to say it out loud? The not being able to repeat words thing is _weird._ And he can turn into a fox at will (or he can turn into a human? That’s another philosophical question he will ponder another day). But at least that makes sense, it has uses! Why the words thing? And his mother says he overthinks things. Reki happens to believe that he thinks the perfect amount, given his life circumstances.

For example, he thinks about why the Fae ended up moving there. It’s very difficult to get into an established supernatural community outside of your own, and Reki has to wonder what circumstances might have convinced these Fae to move. Maybe they have their own little circle? Curiosity gets the better of him again.

“How many are there?”

“Oh, just the one and their mother, who is human. Her family used to have some contacts at the Inari temple, this is why she knew there was a community here. It must be lonely, though. They came all the way from Canada. I wonder what happened there to make them decide-“

“Did you say Canada?” Reki shots up like he’s touched a live wire.

“Yes, why?”

“Moooom! New Boy! From class?” He drags a hand over his face, “He moved from Canada with his mother. Oh, gods, Langa. _Langa_ is Fae?”

“The one you keep inviting over and that you absolutely do not have a crush on? Oh, I always thought he had a bit of an odd accent, but I thought it would be rude to ask.”

Reki resolutely ignores his mother’s barb. What if he does have a crush. It’s none of her business.

“But it might be someone else.”

Reki shots her a very unimpressed look.

“Well, this explains why we get along so well,” he mutters, then bites his tongue. His mother doesn’t like it when he complains about not getting along with norm- with _people._ She said she fell in love and married his perfectly-average-human dad and that it’s ridiculous to say there are intrinsic differences. She says that it’s just hard being a teenager. What would she know, she was a teen like a million years ago! (Just one hundred and fifty, really, but Reki is seventeen, and that number feels unfathomably high.)

But his mother is feeling merciful and doesn’t pick up on that.

Instead, she just watches Reki get up and dig up his phone, typing a quick message as he makes a beeline for the door, still typing one-handed while putting on his shoes.

“Your ears!” she shouts after him, and he just pulls up his hoodie. It’s a miracle he doesn’t pop out his tail, really. The ears are definitely not going down tonight. He distantly realises that mom hasn’t tried to stop him from going out again this late. She probably knows about some of his escapades, but she is usually better at playing stern, and trying to get him to at least not to out on school nights.

He skates all the way to Langa’s apartment complex, and when he gets there, Langa is already downstairs, waiting for him outside. He looks very crumpled and very cute, wearing sweatpants and a giant dark blue hoodie, so big it almost makes him look short. Almost.

“I was going to sleep,” Langa mumbles, “What is so urgent.”

It’s just then that Reki realises the one flaw in his plan: he is just too awkward to do this. He is reasonably sure there are no other half Canadian boys who just moved in with their mothers and always smell like pine woods and rain even in when Okinawa is sweltering with heat and in drought. Still, making the first move is going to be so embarrassing.

It’s because he’s been halfway mulling the repeat-words thing that he’s cursed (not really! Not a real _curse,_ mom always insists on using words properly and curses are… something else entirely) with as a Kitsune, that the first thing that comes to his mind is: “Is it true that Fae can’t lie?”

He sees Langa’s face go through more emotions in a few seconds than he’s seen in months. “They can avoid questions,” Langa settles on, but his teeth are grinding and there’s a bead of sweat on his forehead, where his hair falls in more disarray than Reki’s ever seen it.

On instinct, Reki reaches out and smooths the hair back. Langa lets out a near whine and breaths out: “Yes.”

It’s enough to bleed all the tension out of Reki.

“Cool. I’m a Kitsune,” he blurts out, and pulls back his hood, his ears flickering at the sudden chill. “Well, half-Kitsune, technically, dad’s human and-“

Before Reki’s nervous rambling starts extending to the rest of his family, Langa gasps out loud. This evening is truly a masterclass in startled Langa expressions.

Reki shrugs, suddenly quite self conscious. No one outside his family has ever seen in in anything other than full human form. “Thought you should know,” he mumbles, “Since we both…”

“How did you find out?” Langa asks, quiet, worried.

“From mom. Oh, sorry, no, it’s nothing bad, it’s not. She says _someone_ had an incident with a nest of Tengu? It’s the supernatural grapevine, no one outside knows.”

Langa hides his face in his hands. “It was so embarrassing. I thought I was on my own in that giant park, and I really missed the snow, so I tried to conjure some frost, just a little bit! And then these small… these Tengu,” there’s an upward lilt on the word, like he isn’t sure he’s using it right, “They all came down from the tree all offended, but I didn’t mean to freeze them, or anyone.”

That’s a veritable torrent of words, for him. And it suddenly hits Reki. “Is this why you talk so little? The lies thing.”

Langa glares at him. “In part, yes. You are a menace, you know? No one else in this country asks so many direct questions.”

Slightly embarrassed, Reki brings a hand to the back of his head, messing with his hair. “Ops.”

Langa seems to deflate, shoulders slumping. “Don’t worry. I also don’t… like talking to people that much. Usually,” he cocks his head and looks at Reki, a strange emphasis on the _usually,_ “Do you want to come up? Mom’s already asleep, but she won’t mind.”

“Let me just text mom and tell her I haven’t caused an international incident. Yet.” He texts with one hand, his skateboard held in the other, as he follows Langa up the stairs.

“Sorry about barging in on you like this,” he tells Langa’s back, “Hope you don’t mind me knowing? I just got overexcited, there aren’t many others our age.”

“It was the same back home. And I’ve missed… I mean, mom’s human, so I don’t even have older Fae around.” Langa’s voice is as delicate as butterfly wings when he says: “They never really forgave dad for marrying my mom. So after he.” He stops, it’s not even hesitation, it’s a cut.

They walk up a few more steps.

Tension crawls up Langa’s spine, his back visibly growing rigid even under the hoodie, and Reki feels the odd urge to place a hand between his shoulder blades, to let the warmth seep out from his palm like comfort. They turn on a landing, and Reki can see the nape of his neck, a half profile. “After dad died, we didn’t really want to stay there. We’re foreigners in all senses. Mom was worried about me missing the mountains, and I do. But I do not like the Court there. The woods aren’t nice when I’m on my own.”

The words send a shiver down Reki’s spine. He knows they don’t mean “not nice” as in “it’s not pleasant,” but more like “the woods are sentient and could decide to kill him if they felt like it.”

He’s so glad Langa’s mother decided to move. The most dangerous thing around their area are some prankster Kappa. And probably Langa himself.

Once in Langa’s room, they don’t even manage half a conversation. The weight of the day comes crashing down and they fall asleep next to each other on top of the covers in a matter of minutes.

The following day is a school day and they barely make it out in time in a frantic rush. Langa is still giving him some of his half-smiles, though, so Reki is sure they’re fine.

After school they go to the skate park to practice tricks and get gently bullied by Miya. Everything is as it should be.

“What’s with the dopey smile, Kyan?” The little monster asks, “Did you and Snow finally started sucking faces?”

There is a moment of panic, before Reki locates Langa on one of the slides, far enough to not have heard. Or is it? Does Langa have some sort of fancy spider-senses? Reki really doesn’t know enough about actual Fae that doesn’t come from fantasy novels.

“Earth to Reki!” Miya snaps, trying to get his attention back.

“What did you say about- No, you know what, shut up. There’s nothing going on. And keep it to yourself.”

“If there is nothing going on, there is nothing I need to keep to myself,” Miya points out far too reasonably, with that Cheshire Cat smile of his. That pocket-sized _menace_!

“Just mind your own business for once, jeez,” he stands up, “Come on, you can show me that fancy 360 Ollie Heelflip again and laugh at me when I fall.”

He ruffles Miya’s hair, earning himself a few choice insults. But they are delivered half-heartedly, and Reki knows Miya is secretly pleased to be included and treated like a friend rather than a rival or a celebrity. Even if this includes Reki’s trademarked Big Brother Treatment.

*

It’s a few days before Reki and Langa get the chance to sit down together in the privacy of Reki’s room and have a chat.

“Come on, you can ask,” Reki offers, not entirely selflessly - if Langa asks him questions, he will be able to ask some in return, “It’s not like you can google these things! I mean, you could, but we both know the results would be full of crap.”

“Can you turn into a fox? Like, fully?”

“Yeah. Wanna see?”

Reki is going to catch so much shit from mom if she ever finds out he’s doing this in front of someone who isn’t family. But she won’t! She’ll never know!

“Just…” he stops to think for a moment. He’s going to lose his clothes one way or another. “Turn around.”

“But then I won’t see it.”

“I don’t want to be naked!” Reki very much lies. He would absolutely like to be naked with Langa, but not like this.

He gets out of his clothes, then grabs a sheet and loosely wraps it around himself. “Okay, asshole, you can turn around now.”

Langa is at least quick to pick up upon seeing the sheet, and he nods, expression serious, focused.

There goes nothing. Turns out nakedness was not even the most intimate part of this. Reki lets his senses relax, unwinds the slight thread of control that is always wrapped around his very bones and scrunches up his nose in concentration. His fox form comes naturally to him, and at the same time it doesn’t. He doesn’t spend much time in it, but there’s a pull to it, an instinct never buried too far from the surface. His ears are the first to peek out from the mass of his hair, then his tail (only the one. He’s still very young for a Kitsune, though his middle sister already has two and it’s dreadfully unfair) fluffs out. It occurs to him when he’s halfway through that he will have no way to communicate with Langa once he turns. They’ll be fine, he tries to convince himself, and the rest of his fur comes out, almost as bright as his hair.

His vision is slightly different, and not just because everything appears larger from further down. Langa looks even taller, but still just as pretty and otherworldly. Reki shakes off the bedsheets and looks up at him.

Langa graces him with one of his rare brilliant smiles. “That’s so cool. You look pretty like this. I mean, you always do-“ he puts both his hands in front of his mouth and his cheeks turn a lovely shade of pink.

Reki yelps out his version of a laugh.

“Are you…” Langa narrows his eyes, “Laughing at me?”

Reki nods, unrepentant, then walks closer and sits down, putting his muzzle on Langa’s knee. The other boy doesn’t flinch or react, which is good. Not that Reki was expecting him too, but this is very new and he needs the reassurance.

“This is pretty cool. I wish I could do something this fancy.”

Reki inclines his head. He’d like to say that Langa is extremely fancy and impressive in his own right and he doesn’t even need to try. Curiosity hits him again. Despite looking mostly human, some Fae have animal features, or so he’s heard. Does Langa?

As if reading his thoughts (oh, gods, he can’t read thoughts, right? Reki if so screwed if he can), Langa blinks once and his eyes turn purple. Then his mouth opens slightly, revealing pointed canines.

“That’s me,” he says, and his s has a slight hiss around the longer teeth. Reki probably shouldn’t find it as hot as he does. But these thoughts are immediately replaced with sympathy, as Langa blinks a couple of times and there’s a shine to his eyes that has nothing to do with magic. “Dad looked like me. I thought I wasn’t going to like the Fae part of me anymore, that it would always remind me of him and of. Of not belonging, you know? It was fine until he was around, because he was the best, and we didn’t care about anyone else. We had the snow and we could just be. And for a while I didn’t, I refused to even…” he slips into English for a moment, then shakes his head, “But I think I am starting to be okay again, now,” he mumbles the last part, “It’s… you help. A lot.”

This is the longest string of sentences Reki has ever heard from Langa. Maybe he should try being silent a bit more. Or maybe Langa finally just needs to talk, to let it out in the new space that’s been created between them.

Before he can stop himself, Reki is licking the hand closest to him. Then he jumps back. What the fuck is wrong with him? His best friend in the world has just opened his heart to him about his dead father and he just makes it weird!

He runs under the bedsheet and changes back as quickly as possible so he can breathlessly apologise, “Sorry, sorry, I didn’t want to be weird, I was thinking of comforting you and, ugh, sorry,” he holds the sheet around his body, hands clenched tight and tense, “Thank you for telling me all this. Whenever you need to talk, you know that, right?”

Langa kneels up to lean closer to Reki and puts a hand over his white knuckles. His skin is slightly cold. “Don’t worry about it. I knew what you meant.”

His eyes are still purple. Now that Reki is looking at them from more or less the same height, he remembers a few times when he was sure he’d almost seen that shade.

“Can I ask you something?” Reki starts, then immediately backtracks, “Damn, no, wait. There is something I am curious about, but you don’t have to tell me.”

Langa inclines his head. “Are you…” a wide smile graces his sharp features, and the little fangs do absolutely nothing to dim its beauty, “Are you making sure I am not compelled to answer?”

“Yes! I want you to tell me stuff because we’re friends, not because some bullshit rule that says you have to.”

“That is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.”

Reki is taken aback by the declaration and decides to slump into the bedsheet for a moment, bringing the fabric up to cover his entire face. “Come oooon,” he whines, “You can’t just say shit like this.”

“Why?”

“It’s too nice!”

“You got me a job, build me a custom board, taught me to skate, helped me with homework and never asked a single thing in exchange. You are very nice.”

Reki peeks up. “Oh, no, did I, like, put you in debt?”

Langa shakes his head. “Nope, there was no explicit agreement for an exchange, so it’s not that. Don’t change the subject. You are nice.”

“Noooo.”

“I will keep repeating it until you accept the compliment. You are nice.”

Briefly, Reki debates turning back into his fox form and just biting Langa. Then he thinks about biting Langa, truly thinks about it, and has a whole different set of problems.

“Reeeki,” comes a warning.

“Thankyou!” He replies, so quickly the syllables bleed into one another.

Langa takes pity on him and doesn’t insist any further. “Ask you question, then.”

“So,” Reki thinks carefully, “Mom says… By the way, I haven’t told her anything specific, it was just theoretical questions. Mom says that evading direct questions is very hard, high level stuff,” he looks at Langa expectantly. It’s not a question at all, direct or otherwise, but it’s pretty clear what he wants to know.

“It takes a toll.”

“Sorry for putting you in that position. The other day when I came over, and also if I’ve done it before without knowing.”

“It’s fine.”

And, well, Reki has to take Langa at his word.

“Okay. Can you turn around again, please? I’d like to get my clothes back on.”

“Yes, I can,” Langa replies with a sly smile.

It takes Reki a moment to get it, then he laughs. “Shut up, you idiot. Rhetorical questions absolutely do not count. If it’s not a rule now, I’m implementing it.”

“It could work,” Langa says with surprising seriousness, turning around, “There’s a lot of lore on what people believe becoming true for us. Not so quickly, though. It would take at least a few generations. You could tell it to your kids, see if it sticks.”

“Who says I want children?” Reki says, absolutely, one hundred percent not imagining how his and Langa’s kids would look like.

Look, he’s a teen shapeshifter in love, he’s allowed some over the top daydreams. And it’s not like it would be biologically impossible, either. Maybe a bit hard to explain, but that’s all. The only true impossibility is someone as cool as Langa giving an overexcited puppy like Reki the time of day. Anyway his mom would kill him if he made her a grandma before she turns two hundred. Wait, how long do Fae usually live? He’s about to ask Langa before thinking better of it. They are being transparent, but that might be a bit much.

“It was a figure of speech, I didn’t want to imply. Do you, though?”

“Maybe? I know you can, like, be a single parent or whatever, but I haven’t even been in a real relationship yet, so it all sounds very… theoretical. Very far away.”

Langa gives him one of his stares, like he can’t quite figure him out. “People don’t know what they’re missing.”

“Anyway, I love the twins, but they’re absolute terrors too, so that looks hard.”

“Your mom is pretty amazing. I think it would be nice to have children, some day,” he shrugs, “There’s plenty of time to think about it.”

After a pause, Langa continues speaking. “Anything you want to know from me?”

 _Everything,_ Reki thinks. Doesn’t say it, though, because he’s showing some _amazing_ self-control lately.

“The Tengu thing. You said you missed the snow and accidentally froze a tree.”

Once he’s started, the whole not asking direct questions isn’t really that hard, it almost comes naturally. Langa still can’t outright lie, but he could talk about anything, tell him his favourite ice cream flavour instead, if he wanted to.

“I did _not_ freeze a whole tree,” Langa replies grumpily, “I just underestimated how dry the air is here and… messed up a little.”

“You were going to make snow.”

Langa nods. “Mh. Not out of nothing. I can manipulate the temperature a little and use the air and the water in it.”

“Manipulate the air? Is _that_ how you’re so good at jumps?” So much for not asking direct questions.

“No,” Langa says, frowning, “I would never, that’s cheating. Only… that one time. You saw it.”

“The first time you skated?”

“I was very worried for you.”

“You only met me that day,” Reki tries to downplay it.

But Langa seems in the mood for honesty (ah!). “I already knew I didn’t want you to get hurt,” he looks sheepish, “And it did look like fun.”

*

Reki keeps thinking that after all their big revelations, their lives will change drastically, but nothing much happens. Sometimes when he’s falling asleep on Langa’s shoulder after a night at S he’ll let himself purr a little. Sometimes Langa gives a quick look around to ensure their usual lunch spot is truly empty and then brings out his tiny fangs to tear apart one of his giant sandwiches. Reki hasn’t stopped finding that hot. Reki hasn’t stopped finding any part of Langa hot, really. The boy could be 100% human and Reki would still think him the most magical thing to ever happen to him. He’s aware of how sappy he’s been and he still can’t stop himself.

And sometimes, after watching skating videos until their eyes are crossing with fatigue and talking about everything from their classmates to their childhoods, Reki gets a little too comfortable and uncurls his tail. He’d never realised just how much more relaxing it would be to simply not worry about it. His mom can say whatever she wants about the fact that “we’re all the same, really”, but it’s not like she goes grocery shopping with all her tails fanning out, now, is it.

Physical closeness has never been this easy.

They are tangled up on Reki’s bed, not quite holding hands. Langa’s fingers are going up and down Reki’s palm and the soothing motion is nearly putting him to sleep. One of Reki’s legs is thrown over one of Langa’s and they are half on top of each other.

“You know I never had a relationship,” Reki says.

“Are you asking about me?”

“Mh.”

Langa’s fingers don’t stop. “Define real relationship.”

“Come on, anything.”

“Eight grade.”

“How old is that?”

“Thirteen.”

“Oh my god, how cute.”

“Shut up.”

“Smol baby Langa!”

“Shuuut up! Do you want to hear?”

“Yes, yes, sorry!”

“A boy from math class.” Langa only tenses for the briefest moment while saying this, and Reki makes sure to keep his breathing under control and not to tense, not to make Langa think he’s uncomfortable for even the barest second, even though what he really feels is the complete opposite of discomfort, “We were friends and then decided we were together. It lasted for maybe a month. And then there was David,” he pronounces it Da-veed, very French, “This guy I used to see at snowboard competitions and make out with sometimes, but I am not sure it counts.”

“It counts. Still more than me,” Reki huffs out a breath, “So. Kissing.”

“It’s pretty cool, if you’re into that sort of thing.”

“Come on, can you give me anything else? I’m dyiiiing here.”

Langa chuckles. “It feels. It’s very soft and a little gross, but in a good way. Being close to someone you like is… you know when your ankle wobbles on the board and you think you’ll wipeout, but then you don’t?”

“Yeah, that I can imagine,” Reki pushes at a stray pillow with his foot, staring up at the ceiling.

_Being close to someone you like, uh._

“I, uh, I’m relieved you took that so well,” Langa mumbles.

“Oh. Oh! Sorry I ever made you worry, I, mh, me too. It’s not a secret or anything, either, it usually comes out… I guess I just haven’t noticed anyone-“ he is about to say _anyone else_ because he is an idiot, but he bites his tongue, and throws himself in the first conversational direction he can find, which apparently is coming out 2.0. Fine, whatever. “Any boy, I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever been interested in girls. I would say I’m gay. But also gender is…” Reki trails off to think this through.

“You don’t have to tell me, if you don’t want to.”

Reki twists around so he’s facing Langa. “No, I want to. It’s not that I have some angst about it, it’s just that it’s a Kitsune-specific thing and I don’t really get to talk about it much. Mom knows I’m sorta-mostly-gay, but she’s also,” he wrinkles his nose, “She’s old.”

“How old?”

“You don’t ask a lady that!”

“I meant, parent-old, or like _more_?”

“Uh, older than she looks. Anyway. You know we can shapeshift, right, but it’s not, we don’t just go between two forms. Well, mostly we do. But we could pick another form. Or do subtle changes. Technically I sort of… decided? To be a boy. Not that you decide that, obviously. Since I was very small, I kept turning into myself like this, but I’m… you will have noticed I’m the odd one out. For whatever reason, a lot of us end up picking female forms as humans, and I didn’t. So, like, that’s another layer. I don’t actually think about it that much, but it’s nice to say it all out loud.”

“Makes sense.”

“I mean, technically, philosophically, if I didn’t get assigned a gender at birth, I can’t be cis. Nor trans. I am Schrödinger’s boy.”

Langa laughs at that. “Good thing you’re cute. You can be irresistible regardless of gender.”

“Aw, man, don’t joke about that.”

Langa pulls himself up on one elbow and stares down at Reki, looking really upset. “You know I don’t. And I wouldn’t, even if I could.”

Reki bites his lip. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to-”

He doesn’t know what he didn’t mean to, and it seems Langa doesn’t care, either, because he interrupts him, something he never does.

“You _are_ cute,” Langa repeats, staring into his soul. “You’re lucky dad made me promise not to glamour people unless it was life or death. And that I’m not trying to weasel out of it because he forgot and only mentioned humans. How do I convince you?”

“W-why is this so important to you? Who cares what I think!”

Langa blinks once. Then again. His eyes are turning almost green. “You really don’t know?”

“Know what?” Reki replies, avoiding the unnerving stillness of Langa’s gaze.

“Well, I care,” Langa says, and there’s the telltale tension in his jaw warning Reki that he’s avoiding spilling an answer.

He kicks his legs over the end of the bed and sits up, turning to look at Reki, who finds himself frozen to the spot.

“I’ve been telling you for weeks. At this point I thought you just didn’t feel the same, but you truly don’t get it. When I know you’re watching me race, my heart soars. I don’t mind getting hurt, if you patch me up. The way you move is like the sky before a storm. The way you looked at me, that first sunset at the skate park, your eyes were gold and I thought even the sun was in love with you.”

(Reki thinks, the other reason Langa doesn’t speaks much is because he’s _weird._ Then his brain catches up on what he’s saying.)

“You. Uh. I think something god lost in translation,” Reki comments intelligently, because apparently his people-skills are shit, but his Fae-skills are _even worse._

Langa freezes up, and it’s not a metaphorical expression. He turns very cold and a subtle layer of ice creeps up on his clothes and burns Reki’s hands.

Langa jumps back. “Fuck, sorry, fuck fuck, _merde._ ”

Reki has never heard him swear before.

“Did I do something?”

“I literally can’t lie and I just told you I liked you and you just… why are you _like this,_ Reki?” Langa whines, face in his hands, hair still sparkling with snow. His seemingly endless patience seems to have reached a breaking point. Not even dealing with blood makes him sound this upset.

“But I’m just… and you are… and…” Reki is at a loss. He decides to go for broke, “I have been half in love with you since the first day I saw you, and when we became friends I did everything I could to convince myself not to blow this. I think I need a moment. And some reassurance.”

There’s a slow exhale from behind Langa’s hands. “I like you,” he mumbles into his palms, “A lot.”

Reki pulls himself up and cuddles up to Langa’s back. He puts his chin on Langa’s shoulder. “I like you too.” It’s easier like this, without having to look him in the face. His cheek is touching Langa’s cheek, the way they sometimes are when they’re watching a video together, or Reki is immersed in a magazine and Langa looks over his shoulder.

Langa turns his head enough to catch the corner of Reki’s mouth. It’s quick and it’s warm, not quite a kiss, but it still feels like flying and falling, like the first dip of the season into the freezing ocean, like there is a before and an after this moment.

They adjust, Langa turns enough to get one knee back on the bed, Reki sitting in between his legs and then they are face to face again. There is a soft blush on Langa’s cheeks, his eyes are almost black and his lips are parted. Reki gets to kiss those lips. He can really do that. He leans in, and feels the warmth of Langa’s breath, the soft wet lips. His nose hits Langa’s cheek. Their lips close against each other’s, then open again just the slightest bit, just enough for Langa’s tongue to dart out for a second. It is, indeed, gross in a good way.

Langa has a hand on the back of Reki’s neck, Reki has no idea where to put his, so he just grabs Langa’s shirt.

They stay like that for a while.

Until Reki slides his face into Langa’s neck, nearly getting the starched corner of the shirt collar into his eyes, and purrs. He really does like him a lot. He’s going to bring those silly Tengu a fruit basket and some shiny trinkets.

*

Reki is so hyped at having gained another tail he barrels out of his room in fox form the second he hears Langa coming through the front door.

“Good evening, Mrs Kyan,” Langa is saying as he steps out of his shoes, when he suddenly finds himself with an armful of very excited fox and nearly topples over. At least he’s got years of snowboard and skateboard for his balance.

Ops, his mom, he totally forgot, she wouldn’t approve. Well, Langa is basically family now, so whatever. Reki licks his face.

As expected, she narrows her eyes and, in the universal “you are in so much trouble, young man, but we’ll talk about it later” tone, she hisses, “Reki!”

Attracted by all the ruckus, Tsukihi peeks out from her room, gives them all a worried glance, then disappears again.

“Hi, Reki,” Langa says fondly. Then his eyes widen when Reki basically waggles his tails in his face. “Cool. Congrats.”

Oh, crap, so now mom knows he’s already seen him before, too.

She does give him a suspicious glare, but seems to decide agains bringing that up. He’s in for a stern talking to later, but not in front of guests. Reki wonders if he can just keep Langa there forever.

Langa must feel the tension, because he looks from Reki to his mother a few times, before seeming to decide that, if no one is stopping him, he can go to Reki’s room as usual.

Reki is still in his arms, feeling warm and contented. Even more so when Langa starts absentmindedly scratching behind his ears. He makes a happy noise and snuggles closer into Langa’s chest.

There are some advantages to being this small, cute and soft. But he wants to be able to talk to his boyfriend, so he jumps down as soon as they’re alone and goes under the covers to turn. They haven’t seen each other naked yet, even though they’ve been fooling around a little bit. The ease between them has not disappeared, and they enjoy closeness, from casual touches in public to getting their hands under each other’s shirts to chase the feeling of skin when making out. They got off together a couple of times, half dressed under the covers, one knee between the other’s legs. Just the other day, Reki had left quite the impressive hickey on Langa’s neck while trying to muffle his whimpers, soft cotton boxers dragging deliciously over his erection, Langa’s hand tight in his hair.

Still, there would be something deliberate into undressing entirely that he is not ready for, so he transforms under the covers. Langa helpfully hands him the clothes he left scattered on the floor and doesn’t look at him while he shimmies into them.

His tails stay out, though. He grins at Langa.

*

It’s Langa who convinces him to try.

“Come on, no one will see us, the park is always deserted at night. Skating would be fun, your balance being different…”

“I swear you have a kink,” Reki mutters, but his tails betray him and wag happily.

“I don’t. You’re just so much more relaxed when you don’t have to act all…” he scrunches up his nose adorably, “All human.”

He’s got a point there. He knows his balance would be slightly different, and he’s never been good at resisting skating challenges. Or Langa.

“Fine.”

And it’s much more than fine. Reki can’t help but laugh even as he falls a few times, and then his whole body seems lighter, he moves better than he ever has.

Langa flies. The wheels of his skateboard touch the ground as a mere excuse, his jumps are slow and graceful like trifles such as gravity and air resistance are for other people.

A snowflake falls on Reki’s nose. The moon looks like a silver bow. Or a lopsided smile.

All is well.

EPILOGUE

Langa and Reki are alone in the skate park. The sky above is blue velvet pinpricked by stars and the summer warm air is quiet.

Until a black cat jumps in, seemingly out of nowhere, nearly making Reki trip up. Langa catches him and turns a glare to the animal.

Who then shimmers in front of their eyes and turns into…

“Miya? What the hell?!” Reki nearly yells, while Langa looks around with mild panic.

The little shit smiles. “Thought this was the supernatural S chapter? Or am I barging in on a date?”

“The _what.”_

Miya looks around, “We’re only missing Joe and then it would be all of us.”

“ _Joe?!”_

“Can you stop repeating everything I say? It’s annoying. Thought part of your deal was not repeating things.”

“It’s only if I s-“ Reki slaps both hands over his mouth, “How- What the hell do you know? And why do you have clothes when you transform?”

 _Real smooth,_ Reki thinks, but he is far too curious and quite a bit envious of the clothes thing.

Langa is still holding onto Reki’s wrist hard enough to be painful, and Reki imagines his own expression is one of concern and confusion. Miya narrows his eyes.

“Did you guys… did you really not know about me?”

“How were we meant to know?” Reki squeaks, “The real question is how do you know about us.”

“Dude. I literally rock up to skate with my tail out. How did you not know. And the answer is that I can smell magic.”

Reki is _not_ going to just-

“What are you?” Langa asks for him.

“I’m my own familiar,” Miya says with a wink, then jumps on Reki’s skateboard and rushes towards the ramp, “Come on, let’s see what we’re all _really_ capable of.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you would like more fox!Reki in your life, there are two AMAZING fics written by notallballs (notallbees), [Get Lazy](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29867574) and [First Flush](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29809503). They are completely different from this one, and different from each other (Get Lazy has Langa with wolf ears and tail, which is a new level of adorable), but they are both excellent. And the smut is [chef's kiss]


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